1877.] 213 [Blasius. 
agent is the general and lamentable want of a knowledge of the true nature 
of a storm. 
The statements made to the reporter of the New York Herald by Rear 
Admiral Trenchard, commanding the North Atlantic Station, on board the 
flagship Powhatan, lying off Forfress Monroe, seems to throw the first two 
supposed causes almost out of the question. He says: ‘‘That on Thurs- 
day the vessel was thoroughly inspected by him and his staff, and found to 
be in first-class order,’’ as only would be expected from a first-class lately 
built war-vessel. ‘‘Captain Ryan,’’ he says, ‘‘ was a careful and experi- 
enced seaman, had surveyed the coast along which he was to pass, and 
was considered one of the best navigators in the service ;’’ this settles, it 
seems to me, these two points above all suspicion. 
As to the third agent, the storm, which by the general critic has been 
overlooked, but which the Admiral takes also into consideration, he SAYS : 
‘He sailed at eleven o’clock in the morning, at which time the barometer was 
not indicating bad weather; was rather above, as shown by the official 
log.’ And the surviving officer, Master W. P. Conway, gives us the fol- 
lowing information : ‘‘At 8 Pp. M. there was a strong gale blowing, and the 
sea was running very high. The barometer stood at 30.04 for three hours. 
The jib-stay was carried away soon after 6 P. M.”’ 
The last statements of Admiral Trenchard and Master Conway have ref- 
erence to the storm and the theories about it, and furnish the key to un- 
ravel the cause of this mysterious and sad tragedy. The barometer, the 
only guide science hitherto has furnished the navigator for his safety was 
conscientiously consulted ; it stood ‘‘rather above’’ the mean, and there- 
fore ‘‘ did not indicate bad weather.’’ 
Captain Ryan, who unfortunately cannot speak any more for his own 
justification, but who was considered ‘‘one of the best navigators in the 
service, and a careful and experienced seaman,’’ had undoubtedly looked 
also to this same guide for advice before he started, and finding of course 
the same answer, was certainly justified in view of the present state of 
science and good seamanship to start on his voyage in spite of the warning 
signals flying, the more so as according to the papers these signals had been 
flying for weeks uselessly and had become, therefore, disregarded generally 
byseamen. From his high position and reputation, and the testimony Ad- 
miral Trenchard bears him, we can neither doubt for one moment that he 
was fully acquainted with the science of storms and the rules of navigation 
based on it, and that he had studied the writings of Capper, Thom, Pid- 
dington, Reid, Redfield, Dove and others whose views are adopted ofticial- 
ly in all navies. The accusation of bad seamanship seems, therefore, un- 
founded, unjust and cruel, because all these celebrated men of science up 
to the present time teach, that the storm consists in an area of low pres- 
sure, 7. é., an area where the barometer stands below 30 inches, and that 
the navigator, therefore, has to expect a storm or a so called cyclone only 
when the barometer falls below this mean, but when the barometer stands 
above he may look for fine and clear weather from the approach of an area 
